Fundraising campaign for high school improvements proposed by Bath School Board member
By Bonnie Ralston
Dr. Ellen Miller wants to do some fundraising for improvements at Bath County High School. Dr. Miller, who is a member of the Bath School Board, said at Tuesday night’s meeting that she has been thinking about organizing a fundraising campaign to pay for repairs to the high school auditorium and possibly improvements to the high school parking lot. There is a problem with high humidity levels in the auditorium and the carpeting and stage curtains need to be replaced and the stage floor needs to be refinished. The cost is estimated to be around $100,000. Improvements to the parking lot include paving, additional lighting, drainage work and marking for parking spaces, with the cost estimated at $175,000. Both of these improvement projects were included on the schools’ Capital Improvement Plan. Dr. Miller said that by doing fundraising for this, they may be able to get it accomplished faster than having to wait for county funding to be available. She said these are facilities that are used by both the school and the community and that fundraising would give the rest of the county a vested interest in what’s going on at the school. Dr. Miller said she has never tried to head up fundraising that involved this amount of money, but she is willing to talk to people who have had massive fundraising campaigns to get advice, ideas and guidance.
And there was discussion on working in conjunction with the Rockbridge Area Community Services Board on programs and resources that the board provides. One program during this season of proms and graduations is a campaign to discourage students from drinking alcohol along with discouraging adults from buying it for students. Bath County students are being encouraged to participate in the after prom party at the Rockbridge Area YMCA and buses will be provided to transport students to and from the Y. Students will stay the entire night at the Y until 6:30am, then will have breakfast and then will be brought back to either Windy Cove Presbyterian Church or the high school. Students who live in the Millboro area will leave their cars at Windy Cove and students from the Hot Springs area will leave their cars at the high school. The Bath County High School prom is Saturday, May 10.
Also on Tuesday night, Tanner Bradley was appointed as the student liaison for the school board for the upcoming year. The board also accepted, with regret, the resignation of high school history teacher Justin Broughman. And the board authorized the maternity leave for a teacher at Valley Elementary in the fall and appointed Monique Ingram to fill a half time position in food service at the high school.
There was lots of good news in Bath County Schools reported on Tuesday night. Students were recognized for participation and awards in various art contests. Bath County High School students also won awards at the Family, Career and Community Leaders of America state conference in the categories of culinary arts cooking team, cake decorating, breads and pastry and confections. And there are Future Business Leaders of America regional competition winners in the categories of advanced accounting, management team decision making, health care administration, public speaking, marketing and more.
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